Measuring location and properties of very high frequency sources emitted from an aircraft flying through high clouds

Olaf Scholten (), Marten Lourens, Stijn Buitink, Steve Cummer, Joe Dwyer, Brian M. Hare, Tim Huege, Ningyu Liu, Katie Mulrey, Anna Nelles, Chris Sterpka, T. N. Gia Trinh, Paulina Turekova and Sander ter Veen
Additional contact information
Olaf Scholten: University of Groningen, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Marten Lourens: University of Groningen, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Stijn Buitink: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Interuniversity Institute for High-Energy
Steve Cummer: Duke University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Joe Dwyer: University of New Hampshire, Department of Physics & Astronomy and Space Science Center (EOS)
Brian M. Hare: University of Groningen, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Tim Huege: KIT
Ningyu Liu: University of New Hampshire, Department of Physics & Astronomy and Space Science Center (EOS)
Katie Mulrey: Radboud University Nijmegen, Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP
Anna Nelles: Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
Chris Sterpka: Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
T. N. Gia Trinh: Can Tho University, Physics Education Department, School of Education
Paulina Turekova: University of Groningen, Kapteyn Astronomical Institute
Sander ter Veen: Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract While broadband short-duration radio pulses from airplanes are commonly detected and used for calibration or as background in astrophysical observations, the precise locations of the emission regions cannot be determined in these studies. We show that it is possible to locate the few places on the body of an airplane, while it is flying through high clouds, from which broad-band, pulsed, radiation is emitted at very high frequency radio frequencies. This serendipitous discovery was made whilst imaging a lightning flash using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR). This observation provides insights into the way the airplane sheds the electrical charge it acquires when flying through clouds. Furthermore, this observation allowed us to test and improve the precision and accuracy for our lightning observation techniques. Our results indicate that with the improved procedure the location precision for strong pulses is better than 50 cm, with the orientation of linear polarization being accurate to within 25°. For the present case of a Boeing 777-300ER, very high frequency radio pulses were observed exclusively associated with the two engines, as well as a specific spot on the tail. Despite the aircraft flying through clouds at an altitude of 8 km, we did not detect any emissions from electrostatic wicks.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65667-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-65667-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65667-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().